


Help

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Firefly
Genre: Background Relationships, F/M, Forced Crossdressing, Medicine, Minor Character Death, Plague, Post-Series Pre-Movie, Time Skips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-26
Updated: 2013-06-26
Packaged: 2017-12-16 08:32:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/860088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Simon wakes up confused after an apparently long night</p>
            </blockquote>





	Help

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kitsunealyc](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kitsunealyc/gifts).



> Thanks to my betas, Beccastareyes and Howl!

**Present: Morning**

Simon woke up with a splitting headache. He started to lift himself up, but there seemed to be a giant weight on his chest, and the strain made his eyes roll back. Once the head-splitting pain receded a bit, he moved a little more judiciously. His arms and legs weren't pinned, so it seemed like just his chest was the problem. He tried opening one eye, and his world was full of light brown. Eventually it came into focus as hair, but that didn't really answer much.

He tried to turn his head, and this time succeeded. The next thing to come into focus was a pair of glassy dead eyes, staring at him. "Gaaah!" Simon jumped. In his shock, he managed to push aside the weight on his chest, and he found himself scrambling backwards from the body. When his back hit a wall, he finally stopped. As the pounding in his ears receded, he finally managed to take stock of his surroundings.

His head was still pounding, but it wasn't unbearable. The weight on his chest had been Kaylee, who was now lying on the floor next to their pallet, apparently unconscious. They were in a small, primitive, room that reminded him of the village that he and River had been kidnapped to. And there was a dead woman not two feet away from where he had been lying. He thought he could explain those things.

But why in di yu chong man niao shi de du-gui[(1)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/860088#work_endnotes) was he wearing a dress?

^^^

**7 Days Earlier: Early Evening**

"Heads up, Cap'n, we got a distress call comin' in from the Colman sisters on Deadwood," Zoe declared, jogging into the kitchen.

"The Colmans?" Kaylee looked up in surprise. She was standing behind the counter, dishing up the last of the soup she had made for dinner.

"I thought they said they'd never speak to us again," Mal replied cheerfully.

"Well, you did kiss their little sister," Zoe said wryly, taking her usual place beside River.

" _She_ kissed me!" Mal protested. "And I didn't know they had rules about that!"

"They had all kinds of stupid rules on that ruttin' planet," Jayne complained with a leer.

"But they need our help now?" Kaylee asked, a small frown on her face. She brought the last three bowls over and handed them to River and Zoe before taking her own seat next to the younger girl.

Zoe nodded. "Seems a few traders from the next moon over decided that with no menfolk around, the girls would be easy pickings."

"And I'm sure the twins showed those he chu-sheng za-jiao de zang-huo[(2)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/860088#work_endnotes) a fiery welcome," Mal replied with a grin before taking a bite of his own meal.

"Of course. But they lost their medic in the process. They were making do, feeling out prospects for a replacement, but they got into a bit of trouble in the meantime."

Kaylee's frown deepened. "What kind of trouble?"

"Shu yi[(3)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/860088#work_endnotes), " Wash said, slipping into the seat beside Zoe.

"The Plague?" Mal repeated.

"I ain't goin' on no zhu fuen chse[(4)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/860088#work_endnotes) plague planet." Jayne insisted.

"You wouldn't be welcome anyway," Wash replied under his breath.

"Athens Plague killed 7.3 million settlers before they found the treatment." River said calmly. Mal gave her a look, but didn't comment.

"But they need help," Simon spoke up, feeling the need to say something. Clearly the call was about him, and his skills. He hadn't encountered the Athens Plague in school, but he had read about it, and he knew how to treat the victims.

"They heard we had a medic, yeah," Zoe said. "But the twins got rules, and not even a plague changes the rules."

"Well you and I can help," Kaylee offered, looking between Zoe and Simon. "You've got medical training, from the war an all, and I looked after my siblings plenty."

"That's not the point-" Zoe began.

"If they're sick, I have to help!" Simon interrupted. "They need me, and I took an oath to help people."

Mal stared at Simon, with a look in his eye that the doctor couldn't quite identify. "Well then, I say we gotta help out."

^^^

**4 Days Earlier: Late Evening**

"Ben dah[(5)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/860088#work_endnotes)." Simon looked up from his datapad and stretched his sore back.

"What's wrong?" Kaylee asked, popping into his line of vision. She had been kneeling beside a young patient, putting a fresh compress on her brow.

"Something wrong?" Zoe asked, poking her head into the room. She had been tending to patients in the outer area of the crude hospital.

"Not wrong, per se..." Simon sighed. "But, uh, it isn't the Plague."

"Not the Plague?" Kaylee repeated.

"How's that?" Zoe asked simultaneously.

Simon scowled at his microscope. "Uh, it isn't the Athens Plague. I know the symptoms are identical, but I ran blood from the patients through my analyzer and they don't have it."

"What is it then?" Zoe asked.

"Well, it looks almost like radiation poisoning, but-"

"Radiation?" Kaylee gasped.

"Just our luck," Zoe spat.

Simon hurried to finish. "-but I'm sure we would have been able to detect that from the ship. And my scanner would have picked it up when I was analyzing the girl with the broken ribs."

"Wash wasn't picking anything up when we pulled in," Zoe confirmed. "He wouldn't have let us drop if it wasn't safe."

"But then what is it?" Kaylee sounded a little panicked.

"Uh, I think they've been, um, poisoned. The old fashioned way. Certain poisons would have the same symptoms that we're seeing here, but it'll take more processing power than my pad has to narrow down the cause. But it's likely something in, in the water, or... their food, or... uh..."

"The air?" Kaylee demanded.

Simon considered that. "I don't think so. Airborne poisons usually act very quickly and by all accounts this works slowly. A- and if it were airborne, I would expect, uh, everyone to be sick, rather than just a handful of women."

"Plus, we'd be sick by now, right?" Zoe added.

"Uh, more than likely."

Zoe was silent for a moment before striating up. "So what could do this, Doc?"

"Well, there are literally millions of substances found in this galaxy that can poison a person with enough exposure. Uh, things that cause the bruising and flu-like symptoms that we're seeing… uhm, any number of heavy metals, the mining byproduct off Titan, or perhaps-"

"Why would someone poison this place?" Kaylee interrupted. "The Colman twins are so nice! And they aren't hurting anybody out here!"

"I- I have no idea. Uh, that isn't really what I do." Simon said.

"Well, can you do anything for them?" Kaylee asked.

"I can try. Symtraphan for the nausea, Atenative for the renal failure… I can treat the symptoms, but some of these women are, are beyond help. I can make them comfortable, but, uh..."

"I understand, Doc," Zoe answered. "Just do what you can. I'll call the Captain; see what we can find out."

^^^

**3 Days Earlier: Early Morning**

"So, what's the Doc say? Poison?" Mal repeated. There was quite a bit of static on the uplink today. At least, he hoped that would explain away Zoe's words.

Zoe nodded. "Looks like. I talked to the twins. They said a couple of the traders who attacked survived the initial retaliation. They gave chase, but one man escaped from their huntin' parties and was on his own in the desert for about a week. They think he might've circled back and done something to the town."

"The water." River said from behind them. The three men in the cockpit turned and stared at the girl.

"Didn't hear you come in," Mal said, trying to recover from the surprise. "You're very light on your feet, little one."

"To understand noise you have to understand silence," she replied airily.

"What?" Jayne asked dully.

"Wait, what was that about the water?" Wash asked.

"That's what we figure too." Zoe said, causing them all to turn back to the uplink screen. "There's a well on the edge of town where they get most of their water from. No guard, easy access, and when he was finally caught, the man was in the right area to have gotten to it."

"So the Doc tests the water, what's the problem?" Jayne grunted, leaning over Wash's shoulder.

"Ain't that simple." Zoe replied tersely.

"You've drunk it!" Wash exclaimed.

"No, we had our own supplies, in case it was the Plague. Water, food, anything ingestible." Zoe replied.

Mal nodded. "Cause that's how Athens Plague spreads. But this poison…"

Zoe replied, "Doc thinks it's through skin contact. Folk nearest the well came down with it first; huntin' parties got back two days before we arrived, and they've just started showing symptoms. We got inundated late last night. We been helpin' the doc. Holdin' things, feedin' folk..."

"Washin' your hands," Mal finished.

"Yep. The doc made sure it was hot, to kill the germs, but if it was poisoned..." her voice drifted off.

The Captain nodded, "Then you three got yerselves a problem."

"Ren ci de fo zu qing bao you wo men[(6)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/860088#work_endnotes)," Wash murmured.

^^^

**2 Days Earlier: Afternoon**

"Arg!" Simon barely resisted the urge to throw his stethoscope against the wall.

"What is it?" Kaylee asked, appearing at his elbow.

Simon looked around briefly, but most of his other patients were asleep. "I feel so useless," he confided quietly.

"Why?" Kaylee asked, concern for him in her deep eyes. There was also pain there, well hidden, and Simon made a mental note to give her some headache medicine as soon as he could.

His patient gasped again, and Simon looked back down at her. "She's got a seizure disorder," he explained to Kaylee. "She's always had it, from what I understand, but it means that I can't give her the Atenative, because it will make her seizures worse."

"Okay, so what do we do?" Kaylee asked, clearly not fully understanding what Simon was saying.

"Kaylee , you go help the girls in the other room keep cool," Zoe said, appearing beside them quietly. "I'll help the Doc with this one."

"Okay!" Kaylee rose and hurried off to help.

Zoe kneeled in her place and looked Simon in the eye. "Without the Atenative, she won't make it," he blurted out. "I can't stop the byproduct waste from building in her system. She'll just get sicker, faster, and she'll start to seize anyway. Either way she'll be dead before we hear back from _Serenity._ " He hated losing a patient! Some of the other women had been too far gone before he even arrived, but this woman had just fallen sick today!

"I understand," Zoe said calmly. "So what do we do?"

Simon took a deep breath, trying to draw her calm into himself. "Well, we should move her away from the others. Those seizures will be violent, and we don't want to scare anyone."

"We can put her in our room," Zoe offered.

Simon wanted to snort. Their _room_ was little more than a cupboard with three pallets on the ground, but it was the only room in the building that wasn't currently full of patients. "Okay."

"And then you just give her whatever'll make her end a little better." Zoe continued. "I'll go over to the twin's office and check in with Wash. See if they've got any ideas yet."

Simon nodded. This was a plan of action that he could follow: palliative care and checking back in with the Captain. "Will you ask how River's doing?" he asked as they grabbed either end of the woman's pallet.

"Of course, Doc."

^^^

**1 Days Earlier: Midday**

"Jing cai[(7)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/860088#work_endnotes), we've got it!" Wash yelled as soon as the uplink connected.

"I can here you loud a clear baby," Zoe replied, one hand against her temple. She was leaning against the wall this time, and Wash cringed. She didn't look too good.

"Sorry," Wash instantly lowered his voice. "But we figured out what it was. I got an old friend from school; his computers make the Doc's analysis pad look like a piece of cardboard. He ran all your symptoms and cross referenced something I didn’t quite understand and he figured it out! And there's a treatment! I've linked it all to the twin's terminal down there."

"Good. I'll get the Doc." Zoe disappeared from the frame.

"That's wonderful." Kaylee piped up, stepping into view. "Hey, Wash!" she added quietly.

"Hey. how're you doin?" Wash asked. As much as he feared for Zoe, having Kaylee out there sick was just as bad. But they had been the only two who could help the Doc planetside.

"Good, good." She paused. "'Cept for the headache."

"Well, Inara'll be there soon," he said, knowing it would cheer her up.

"Inara's coming?" Kaylee asked, perking up as he had hoped.

"Yup. She finished her own work on Highgate and she stopped over at the medical center on her way back. We already told her what to get, so she should be back by the end of the day and she'll bring you the treatment."

"Thanks, baby," Zoe said quietly, appearing over Kaylee's shoulder. "The Doc had to stay with a couple of patients, but he wanted to thank you for the information. Also wanted to know how River was."

Wash smiled. It had been the same question, every day. "She's still fine. She's been keeping to her room, 'cept at meals, and the Cap'n checks on her regular-like."

"No knives?" Zoe asked, raising one eyebrow.

"Just a lot of gibberish. No bloodshed at all, I'm happy to report." Wash didn't bother to hide his own relief at the report. Though River had been doing better since Simon took her through the med center on Osiris, it was worrisome to have him away for so long, not keeping an eye on her.

"Well that's a small mercy anyhow," Zoe said. "I'll get this information back to the Doc; see if we can get some of these people feeling better. See you later, Baby."

Wash met her eyes for a few long moments, and then ended the transmission. "Stay safe," he whispered into the empty cockpit.

^^^

**6 Days Earlier: Late Morning**

"Try it on!" Mal declared cheerfully.

"Why am I wearing a dress?" Simon asked, eyeing the dingy cotton ensemble the captain was holding.

If anything, the man's insufferable smile widened. "Rules are rules, Doc! These communities won't allow no menfolk in. 'S why Jayne and I have to stay on the ship. If you're serious about helpin' folk, you put on the skirt."

Kaylee placed one gentle hand on Simon's arm. "'Sides, I picked you out the prettiest one. You'll be the belle of the ball!" Simon glanced down at her, but saw the genuine excitement in her eyes. Only the captain was expressing an unholy glee at his situation.

"After our li'l Kaylee here, o' course," Mal said with an almost straight face.

"Aww, thanks Cap'n." Kaylee moved over to give him a hug.

Simon sighed in defeat. He did want to help these people, and it had been explained to him – twice – why there were no men allowed on Deadwood. He just hadn't translated that into his own wardrobe choices until now. But there were people who needed him, so he swallowed his pride and took the dress from the Captain. "Uh, thank you, I guess."

^^^

**Author's Note:**

> (1) Di yu chong man niao shi de du-gui [The hell full of urine-soaked demons]  
> (2) He chu-sheng za-jiao de zang-huo [Filthy fornicators of livestock]  
> (3) Shu yi [Plague]  
> (4) Zhu fuen chse [Pool of pig droppings]  
> (5) Ben dah [stupid]  
> (6) Ren ci de fo zu qing bao you wo men [Merciful Buddha protect us]  
> (7) Jing cai [Awesome]


End file.
